I seem to have misplaced 17 years of progress. Some of this also visible at @UimanGwbench on Twitter
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Belated realizations
Years ago, while considering why I fell off writing, and shortly after I started reading fan-fic and learning some of the terms of fan-fic discussions, I realized:
Every single story I ever wrote was fix-it fic for my life, usually barely-disguised.
Saturday, September 09, 2023
Friday, September 08, 2023
Tuesday, September 05, 2023
Monday, September 04, 2023
Friday, September 01, 2023
Saturday, August 26, 2023
Thursday, August 24, 2023
New discovery in One Song to the Tune of Another research:
Thanks to the David Byrne vocal goofing in Drawing Characters From Memory With Barrett - YouTube , I have now realized that
"Rainbow Connection" written by Paul Williams, sung by Jim Henson
can swap lyrics and tune with
"Life During Wartime"written and performed by Talking Heads
can swap lyrics and tune with
"Life During Wartime"written and performed by Talking Heads
Friday, August 11, 2023
Perspective
An observation I made after a doctor's office visit:
There's nothing like an uncooperative sample jar lid to make you appreciate the rest of your day.
There's nothing like an uncooperative sample jar lid to make you appreciate the rest of your day.
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Friday, July 21, 2023
If you wanna battle, you're in denial. (Marvel Studios' The Marvels | Official Trailer)
Teaming Up Changes Everythingone
Saturday, June 24, 2023
#Repressed Anger
"History shows again and again / How data points out the folly of devs..." - Me, angry at work, mangling Blue Oyster Cult lyrics.
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
#Repressed Anger #ThisDidn'tActuallyHappen
Today's bad idea: answering all work questions with Duran Duran lyrics.
This was triggered by the lyric "I'm on a ride and I want to get off / But they won't slow down the roundabout."
This was triggered by the lyric "I'm on a ride and I want to get off / But they won't slow down the roundabout."
If I knew more people in the office, they might ask why I was there, and I'd claim "Watching over Lucky clover. Isn't that bizarre?"
But, my team shifted office space during the plague, so no one there would know me well enough to shrug it off with "Who really gives a damn about a flaky bandit?"
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Saturday, May 06, 2023
Maternal Wisdom
"A lot of times, couples need their own paperwork." - Mom, explaining why there's two copies of this visit's itinerary in the bag of snacks she handed us as soon as we got out of the car.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Friday, March 17, 2023
Friday, March 10, 2023
Sunday, March 05, 2023
Saturday, March 04, 2023
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Friday, February 17, 2023
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Monday, February 13, 2023
Super Mario Bros. Movie DID THE ONE THING I WANTED! (Super Mario Bros. S...
Thursday, February 09, 2023
Friday, February 03, 2023
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Saturday, January 14, 2023
Thursday, January 12, 2023
Friday, December 30, 2022
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Singing about annoyances.
While dealing with a glitter-shedding Christmas card today, I started singing, 'Craaaaft herpes, wiider than a mile...."
So, it's still a good thing I've been too lazy to learn video editing.
Or YouTube would have Audrey Hepburn singing something very different on her balcony....
If I Wasn't So Lazy, I'd Be Dangerous
If I weren't so lazy....
- I'd have learned video editing software to replace the Millennium Falcon with the P-Funk Mothership.
Friday, December 16, 2022
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Monday, December 12, 2022
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Friday, December 09, 2022
Friday, December 02, 2022
Thursday, December 01, 2022
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Married Conversations: One Concern to the Tune of Another
(Frage sits in the recliner in the living room, watching HGTV.)
(UIM, just-showered and half-dressed, strides out with determination, picks up the letter-size notepad, grabs a pen, starts scribbling and mumbling.)
(UIM, just-showered and half-dressed, strides out with determination, picks up the letter-size notepad, grabs a pen, starts scribbling and mumbling.)
(After a minute of this...)
Frage: "Should I be worried that you're mumbling 'cut you down and destroy'?"
UIM: "It's 'one song to the tune of another'. I realized you can sing the verses of Johnny Cash's 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' and Metallica's 'Seek and Destroy' to each other's tunes."
Frage: "Ah."
UIM: "But I understand you worry when your pants-less husband mumbles like that. You concerns are valid."
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Married Conversations: Saturday Wait (for a breakfast sandwich)
Frage: "I got you a different breakfast sandwich. It's called The Cure."
UIM: "Is it supposed to be a hangover remedy."
Frage: "No, it's cured meats."
UIM: "I guess I'm just glad it doesn't look like Robert Smith."
Frage: "Every time I see it, I chuckle and think, 'Friday I'm in Love'."
UIM: "But today is Saturday."
Frage: "Yes."
UIM: "Are you all out of love?"
Frage: "No."
UIM: "Because that would be an Air Supply."
Friday, October 14, 2022
Married Conversations: Something Might Be Found
(After Frage comes in, and is throwing out her coffee cup.)
Frage:"So, yeah, I got myself coffee as a little treat."
UIM: "The pool was closed, so you walked the whole time?"
Frage: "No. I swam, then walked."
UIM: " I really should just standardize it as 'How as your walk/swim?'"
Frage: "Or you could look for clues, like, my hair is wet."
UIM: "Now, listen, I am barely awake until noon, on my best days. So, don't expect too much from me and -" (realizes) "you might not be let down and goddamnit I am quoting a Gin Blossoms song."
Friday, August 12, 2022
Poo Hearts Beating In Just One Mind.
(Context is lost, but....)
Frage: "It's all about the poo with you."
... devolving into Lyric Word Replacement - 'poo' for 'two' ...
Frage: "Just the Poo of Us."
UIM: "It Takes Poo to Make a Thing Go Right."
...
UIM: "And, of course, the Spice Girls singing, 'Poo Become One'."
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
Wrapped in white tissue as cold as the - ewwwww
During the 15-minute-or-so break that Frage and I took today to get sympathy about our respective jobs...
Frage: "I'm not a manager or a supervisor, but somehow the circus is mine."
UIM: "Other folks just keep assigning you monkeys."
Frage: "And I did not want responsibility for these poo-slingers."
Frank: "Now, I'm just imagining two monkeys in cowboy outfits facing off at high noon in a town, with holsters full of poo."
Reactions by other folks after I shared the above bit:
'Backer (my cousin): "I'm going to commission someone to draw that, and put it up on the wall above my home desk."
Shell (my brother): "This town ain't big enough for the poo of us."
UIM: "I am now scared `Backer will make it an NFT with that title, and somehow I'll be responsible legally for whoever he sells it to."
Stringer (my other brother): "Non-flingable turds."
Wednesday, February 09, 2022
Songs That Are Fun To Sing in Fred Schneider's Voice
most Doors songs, but especially Roadhouse Blues (as noted here: https://thegroupwbench.blogspot.com/2021/10/same-situation-different-emphasis.html )
Mother, Danzig
Mother, Danzig
Forgot About Dre, Dr. Dre and Eminem
Friday, January 07, 2022
Nerf and Theft
(During a Zoom meeting.)
Meeting co-ordinator "Hey, UIM, is that a Nerf gun behind you?"
(UIM unmutes, nods, grabs the Nerf gun, and holds it closer to the screen.)
UIM: "Yeah. Doesn't work. Five bucks in a thrift shop."
Developer: "I saw the orange bit and thought it was a traffic cone."
UIM: "No, in my family, we steal those. We don't pay five bucks for them in a thrift shop."
------
Some of the responses when I texted this to family members:
My brother, Shell: "Stop revealing family secrets."
My other brother, Stringer: "I have two of them in my shed." (He did not clarify whether he meant cones or Nerf guns.)
My cousin, `Backer: "Of course we don't- we already paid for them with gas taxes."
Meeting co-ordinator "Hey, UIM, is that a Nerf gun behind you?"
(UIM unmutes, nods, grabs the Nerf gun, and holds it closer to the screen.)
UIM: "Yeah. Doesn't work. Five bucks in a thrift shop."
Developer: "I saw the orange bit and thought it was a traffic cone."
UIM: "No, in my family, we steal those. We don't pay five bucks for them in a thrift shop."
------
Some of the responses when I texted this to family members:
My brother, Shell: "Stop revealing family secrets."
My other brother, Stringer: "I have two of them in my shed." (He did not clarify whether he meant cones or Nerf guns.)
My cousin, `Backer: "Of course we don't- we already paid for them with gas taxes."
Friday, December 31, 2021
2022
I was about to express hopes for peace and joy and change in the new year.
And then a second later, random dingleberries started setting off firecrackers at midnight.
And then a second later, random dingleberries started setting off firecrackers at midnight.
Knowledge I Learned from My Friends This Year
If there's something on the floor, don't stand in it. (January 2021 - It was a world of Warcraft statement, but it's really applicable everywhere.)
You'd think if you hadn't eaten all day, anything would taste good. (January 2021)
People made of fluff should be last in the battle order. (January 2021)
The octopus is judging you. (February 2021)
We aggro'd the fucking world. Why not drive off the cliff? (February 2021)
Knob Creek immediately goes up your nose and burns your brain. (March 2021)
Some nights, you'll need some help with a quest you shouldn't have gotten into. (March 2021)
Under normal circumstances, Urgent Care never tells you to come back the next day for a follow-up. (June 2021)
A case of shingles can feel like a midget trying to drive a spike through your ear for three weeks. (August 2021)
Chickens are nasty. That's why they are so tasty. (October 2021)
Your child will be aghast that you know the lyrics to 'The Time Warp'. (October 2021)
Do not hide bodies in the attic - that's the first place they look. (December 2021)
Sunday, December 12, 2021
I don't think 'Weird Al' did this in concert, but I'm also too lazy to verify that....
During my lunch break on Tuesday, I took the parts I wanted from several meal-plan meals, stuck them in a bowl to microwave them. They key piece of this was the provolone slices I took from two of the meals, and laid on top of the other components.
All while singing the word 'Provolone' instead of 'Kodakchrome' in the Paul Simon song.
Obviously (because it's me), this grew out of control....
When I think back on all the lunch I had in high school,
It's a wonder I can eat at all.
Oh, but my lack of good nutrition never hurt me none.
I still can read a menu on the wall.
It's a wonder I can eat at all.
Oh, but my lack of good nutrition never hurt me none.
I still can read a menu on the wall.
Provolone
(something some thing something)
Gives me a happy stomach.
Makes all the world a cheesy day, oh, yeah.
With my Italian sandwich
(something some thing something)
Mama, please don't take my provolone away.
If you took all the meals I had when I was drinking,
And put them in a buffet for one night,
It would never match my flavor recollection -
Everything tastes worse in sober light.
Provolone
(something some thing something)
Gives me a happy stomach.
Makes all the world a cheesy day, oh, yeah.
With my Italian sandwich
(something some thing something)
Mama, please don't take my provolone away.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
#RepressedAnger
"Look, on my best day, I am a chaos gremlin, but most days I am a vicious vengeful bridge troll. So, maybe you want to start listening to what I'm saying, instead of making me repeat everything three times by asking questions that I specifically answered in the previous sentence."
Saturday, November 20, 2021
Songs That Are Fun to Sing in My Dad's Voice (Sarcastic Heavy Brooklyn Accent)
No Sleep Til Brooklyn, Beastie Boys
Paul Revere, Beastie Boys
Keep Their Heads Ringing, Dr. Dre
Forgot About Dre, Dr. Dre and Eminem
Waterloo, ABBA
Fernando, ABBA
Lady Marmalade (Moulin Rouge version) - Mya, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott
Berzerk, Eminem
Thrift Shop, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Love Runs Out, One Republic
I'm Too Sexy, Right Said Fred
Songs That Are Fun to Sing in a Chipmunk Voice
Chip Away the Stone, Aerosmith
Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin
Vacation, Go-Gos
Dancing in the Moonlight, King Harvest
Fire, Jimi Hendrix
Friday, November 12, 2021
Songs That Are Fun To Sing in A Kermit Voice
(in rough order of how they occurred to me over the last thirty-odd years)
Red House, Jimi Hendrix
You Shook Me All Night Long, AC/DC
Closer, Nine Inch Nails
I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones
(This will be updated as I recall more of them)
Life During Wartime, Talking Heads (noting the verses can be sung to Rainbow Connection)
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Not-so-repressed anger
(UIM direct-messaging a cow-orker.)
"How bad a sign is it that I'm singing 'This Ain't a Vendor, It's a God-damn Trash Fire' to a Fall Out Boy song?"
With nothing to consider, they forget my name?
(Frage making her coffee in the kitchen.)
(UIM in the living room, working on data correction and singing along with 'That's Not My Name'.)
UIM: "They call me quiet / but I'm a riot / Mary Jo, Lisa / It's all the same...")
(UIM looks up as Frage walks with her coffee back to her spare-room work area.)
Frage: "I have never called you quiet..."
(UIM in the living room, working on data correction and singing along with 'That's Not My Name'.)
UIM: "They call me quiet / but I'm a riot / Mary Jo, Lisa / It's all the same...")
(UIM looks up as Frage walks with her coffee back to her spare-room work area.)
Frage: "I have never called you quiet..."
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